The cross stick is a drumming technique which spans all musical genres. From Philly Joe Jones laying down the “4″ with Miles Davis, to Brad Wilk breaking things down with Rage Against the Machine, the cross stick is the universal alternative to the snare drum back beat.
One of my favorite “cross stick-heavy” recordings is Erykah Badu’s 1997 “Live” album. With a deep pocket and a huge sound, drummer, Poogie Bell’s performance is a tour de force of R&B timekeeping.
Here he is playing some cross stick on Erykah’s track, “On & On”.
Poogie Bell
Loop #51
Today’s loop is my hat tip to Poogie. Sixteenth notes on the hi hat, some ‘sugarfoot’ on the bass drum and plenty of cross stick.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
There’s recently been a resurgence of the classic “Motown Sound” in modern music. Artist like Jamie Lidell, Amy Whinehouse and one of my favorites, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings have been infusing their twenty-first century tracks with both the production and feel that came roaring out of Detroit in the early 1960s.
Loop #41
This loop is dedicated to the legendary Uriel Jones who sadly passed away last week. If you want to learn more about Uriel (and the history of the greatest rhythm section ever), then I highly recommend watching the documentary, “Standing in the Shadows of Motown”.
Uriel Jones and James Jamerson
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I’ll find any excuse to put off doing laundry. It’s one of those mundane chores of life that I could really do without… but then again, I don’t want to smell like a bum.
Earlier today, as I was reluctantly carrying my basket of laundry downstairs, I passed my studio in the hallway and could hear my drums calling out to me:
Hey asshole. Put that basket down. Come in here. Laundry can wait. You’re two days behind on loops!”
Fine, fine. Twist my arm.
I sat down and thought about what I was going to record. I’ve been on another Beatles kick the past few days (The White Album on heavy iPod rotation) and decided I’d go for a Ringo type vibe. To get the flat “towel sound”, I reached for three t-shirts that were on top of the pile of laundry and placed them on my toms and snare. Why mess up some perfectly clean towels?
The sound is in the smell.
Loop #40
Three dirty t-shirts, a bit of compression and a lot of procrastination.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I prefer recording my drums in small to medium sized rooms. There’s something about the attack and tightness you get when you’re not bouncing the sound off of 30′ ceilings. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had the chance to record in the “big” rooms at The Hit Factory (RIP) and Avatar in NYC and while the drums sounded HUGE and bigger than life, it was almost too much. If you’re tracking drums for Whitesnake, this might be the sound you’re looking for… but often it can be hard to reign it in and fit in a mix.
The Hit Factory - Studio A
On the flip side, when you record in a smaller room, sometimes you need to make things sound bigger than the natural acoustics can provide. One trick to making this happen (without reaching for the dreaded reverb insert) is to place a microphone in the hallway outside of the drum room. This is a technique I stole from one of my favorite producers and engineers, Tchad Blake. This mic placement often gives you something that’s a few notches beyond your typical room mic, and can sound great both on it’s own and mixed in with the full drum track.
The Hit Basement - Studio G.
Loop #37
Today’s loop is based on the “hallway mic’ing” technique. The first 8 bars is just the single mic (SM57) placed outside of the drum room about 10″ and positioned in the “sweet spot” (the second step). The next 8 bar phrase is the full drum mix along with the hallway mic. I attribute the fine-tuned ambient characteristics to the acoustically treated carpet that lines the basement of my house. The combination of ground in cat hair and Dorito crumbs seems to cancel out all unwanted bass frequencies.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Several years ago, while living in NYC, I became involved in an underground society. We met at clandestine locations, took part in secret rituals, and dressed in distinctive, waled garb. The meetings, filled with important agendas, abundant libations, and chants of “Hail the Wale”, took place twice a year. Specifically, on 1|11 and 11|11. For these are the dates that most resembled the very thing we joined to celebrate, debate and honor; corduroy.
The Corduroy Appreciation Club wishes to cultivate good fellowship by the advancement of Corduroy awareness, as well as, understanding, celebration, and commemoration of the fabric and all related items. Club events are held on dates which incorporate, resemble or refer to corduroy.”
Let’s be clear about something and dispel any false notions before they arise. CAC members are not required to put on silly hats or parade around in go carts. We are, however, expected to wear at least two items of corduroy to all club gatherings.
Loop #23
111 BPM - Forever Retired
Today’s loop is in honor of the CAC. I wasn’t sure what I was going to play at first. I just set the click track to 111 BPM and did what felt natural. For some reason, I envisioned a stadium. A halftime show, to be specific. However, there were no wardrobe malfuctions at this show, just a lot of “swooshy” reverb and some fancy hi hat work. After recording the loop, with the vision of a sports stadium still fresh in my mind, I decided make the ultimate tribute. Much like Larry Bird and his #33 jersey number, or Walter Payton’s #34, I decided to retire 111 BPM. In the name of corduroy, this will be the first and last loop recorded at this tempo. From this point point forward, 111 will hang from the rafters.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Butter makes the world a better place. I love butter on english muffins. When I go to the movies, I ask for extra butter on my popcorn. I love butter so much, a few years ago I often starting using it as an adjective: “buttery”.
I think I first used the term “buttery” to describe the sound of drummer, Matt Chamberlain. Matt’s high cholesterol drumming started to make it’s way up the music charts in the late 90′s when he began to record with artists such as Tori Amos, The Wallflowers and Fiona Apple. With a combination of warm, earthy sounding drums and dark, shimmering cymbals, Matt’s playing produces a certain buttery goodness that make his grooves melt right into the track.
Matt Chamberlain - 'Butter is the magic carpet to flavour' Loop #4
Today’s loop is something I would file under ‘buttery’ (looks like I need to update my categories). To achieve this sound I pulled out my super thin, super trashy hi hats, my 6 1/2 x 14″ brass snare tuned WAY down (with a few pieces of paper on the head to give it extra some “thunk”) and I placed an extra Shure SM57 on the bottom of snare to really capture the “whoosh” of the strainer.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Today’s loop is dedicated to Richard Starkey aka Ringo Star. Ringo was the drummer in an underground pop band from the 60′s called The Beatles. I highly recommend going to your local vinyl shop and digging for some of their albums.
Why am I dedicating this to Ringo? Because Ringo came up with the ingenious idea of placing towels on top of his drums when recording in the studio. This technique resulted in the signature “Ringo sound” which was prevalent in their later albums; flat, punchy and ultra compressed. It is also my guess that Ringo used these towels to dry himself when playing drums on the beach. Talk about resourceful.
Loop #2
I took Ringo’s towel technique and ran with it on this one. Using close mic’ing on all of the drums, I cranked up the compressor and panned the toms hard left and right. Finally, I pulled out the bit-crusher and smashed things up a bit. The final result: This sounds absolutely nothing like Ringo but more like something Pharrell would produce after spilling Moët all over the console. Yet again, another reason to have towels in the studio.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
